Welcome to Season 5, officially the latter half of Growing Pains series run. Are you excited? You should be, because we are picking up right where we left off at the end of Season 4–with Mike’s proposal to Julie.
And wouldn’t you know it, she says yes!
And wouldn’t you also know that despite Maggie and Jason having hired Julie as a nanny, which means that they trusted her enough to care for one of their children, and also despite paying for her to join them on a cruise, they are both not at all thrilled with this engagement. In fact, Maggie is, and I quote, “not letting some blond” take her darling son away from her, and also at one point refers to Julie as a “scheming hussy.”
I should also point out that Maggie is also blond…which, I mean, I guess you can judge people with the same hair color as you if you want, but it seems questionable.
Anyway, this whole episode turns into Maggie and Jason attempting to talk Mike and Julie out of their engagement, mostly through trying to make marriage sound like the hardest and worst thing ever. Again, given that they married young and are still happily married in the show, this seems a questionable approach.
First, Maggie and Jason have Julie and Mike over for dinner, serving them weenies and beans, because they want Mike and Julie to know that’s all they’ll be able to afford as a young married couple. Jason also comes armed with a multi-page questionnaire designed to show Mike and Julie how little thought they’ve given to things like how they’ll make money and where they’ll live. Except Mike and Julie have given thought to all these things.
If you’re keeping score, so far it’s Maggie and Jason: 0 points. Julie and Mike: 1 point.
Exactly twenty-four hours later, Maggie has come up with another plan which involves having Jason take Mike out for dinner to talk him out of getting married, while Maggie meets with Julie to talk her out of marriage. And by “talk her out of marriage”, I mean that Maggie planned to fire Julie. Yikes. Maggie’s really a got a mean streak in her. She even went so far as to call her parents into town to take over Julie’s nanny duties. In fact, it’s Maggie’s father Ed who accidentally spills the beans on this plan…to Julie’s face…which makes things very, very awkward, and which also ruins Maggie’s plan.
The new score: Maggie and Jason: still 0 points. Mike and Julie: 2 points.
Now Maggie’s parents get in on the action. Except they’re not against Mike and Julie getting married, which really infuriates Maggie to no end. Through a bunch of reverse psychology, they eventually help Maggie see that she’s acting just like her own parents did when she got engaged to Jason. And, like most of us, as soon as Maggie sees she’s acting just like her parents, she backs down.
In the end, Maggie and Jason are still not at all pleased about the engagement, but they’ve agreed that they won’t stand in their way.
The final tally: Maggie and Jason: 0 points. Mike and Julie: 3 points.
Hold onto your hats, it looks like we’ve got yet another Growing Pains wedding on the horizon!